A BOY CALLED RED
by LusciousNesha
Summary: In a distopian society, famine has taken over the world and when the food source gets low, people are forced to eat the only thing that they have in large enough numbers to count - each other. When Sam Evans takes a trip to Grandmother's house, he finds more trouble than he was really prepared for. AU version of Red Riding Hood, starring Sam as Red. Rated M for violent content.
1. Wolves

WOLVES

Sam Evans packed up his backpack, stressed out about the fact that his family was now homeless and they were all having problems getting things together. He'd raised them as much money as he possibly could and left them in the middle of the night, with a note of his love and how he did not want to be more of a burden. He was practically a grown man now. There was no need to bring his mother and father stress and to take away from what they gained for his two younger siblings. The blonde put on his red hoodie, looked at them one last time and set out for his grandmother's house.  
If Sam remembered correctly, his parents had not spoken to his grandmother in years, since she remained in the woods when the famine hit. They still loved her and hoped that she would be alright on her own, but that old firecracker refused to go a step outside of the house that her husband built her. "It'll take more than a few wolves to get this old coot out of her rightful home!" She said when Dwight and Mary tried to force her to leave with them. The woods were no longer safe!

It was one of the first places that people retreated to when the famine hit. They all tried to find homes in the woods - whether in caves, in tents, posted up in treetops, or cabins... Those who owned cabins in the woods had the choice to abandon them, share them with strangers, or constantly defend them against looters. With two small children and a young teenager, the Evans did not want to try to fight. "We'll find a house in the city and stock it up with everything that we can," Dwight urged.  
"My basement is stocked. I'm not moving a tick," the old lady said. That was one of the last memories Sam had of her. His parents spoke of her like she was dead already, but he wanted to have faith that she had somehow made it. He wanted to hope that he could find her and hopefully help her to defend what he hoped was still hers...

The woman cried and pounded on the door, "Please, Miss! I saw you earlier! I know that you're in there!" She cried out. "There are wolves on my trail and I have my young daughter with me!" She cried.  
_How unfortunate that was! _Everyone knew not to open the door when wolves were afoot. Still, the old lady cracked the door and a woman and her teenage girl rushed inside. "She ain't that young," the old lady commented.  
"No, she ain't," the black woman said as she shut and locked the door.  
"Y'all wolves?" The woman asked.  
"I am," the woman said, "But, I'm not here to eat you, Granny. I promise... I just didn't want them getting to my daughter. She's been through enough these past few years. I've managed for her not to ever have to be like me." She cupped her daughter's face and looked at Granny, "Thank you for letting us in."  
"Well, we might as well go into the basement, if the wolves are about," Granny said and lead them to the entrance, from behind them.

The next morning, Mercedes woke up and smelled something marvelous cooking. She rushed out of the basement, not seeing her mother nor the old lady and found her mom in the kitchen, cooking up a storm. "Mama, is that meat I smell?"  
"Yeah, Babe. I went and found a few rabbits for you, today," she answered.  
Mercedes smiled brightly. It had been years since she had homecooking. She'd mostly eaten wild animals charred by campfire, void of seasonings with a bit of wild vegetation. Now, this place smelled like real food. "Where is the Granny?" She asked.  
"Oh, her?" Her mother asked, and chuckled, "She's in bed," she said with the wave of her hand. There was something about how her mom had said that which alarmed her. She went through the large cabin, searching for the woman's bedroom. She found a bed and saw the woman in it. She was almost satisfied... until she saw the blood. She gasped and rushed to the woman to see that she had a stump where her leg had been the previous night and it was crudely tied and tended to.. like out in the wilderness injuries. "What happened?" She asked.  
The old lady was obviously in exquisite pain as she groaned, "The wolf.. the... wolf..."  
"Mama?" Mercedes asked and cried.  
"She's going to eat me," the old woman said.

Her mother was a wolf. She had been for quite some time. No - not those things that you'd see on television. It wasn't like someone bit you and turned you into this. But, after not being able to eat for a time, a long time... there simply were fewer options. Even vegetation, even wild animals were scarce. Some people kept chickens, some kept rabbits, and they had to defend their lands with ferocity, raising their food in secret, as to not become victims of robbery. But, the wolves would feed on mankind. Cannibals who hunted in packs - usually keeping their food supply alive as they stripped different portions. Traveling in packs - they didn't have the luxury of a freezer. Wolves had to keep their food alive as long as possible. If Mrs. Jones thought that Mercedes would sit idle while she did that to this poor woman, she was mistaken!  
Mercedes stormed back into the kitchen, "What is in that breakfast?" She asked.  
"Rabbits, for you, young lady!" The woman told her.  
"But, the old woman was so nice! Mama, she didn't have to help us, but she did!"  
"And she will continue to help. It is much safer for me to have a viable food source here than to have to hunt. You can be sustained by the wild animals and I will be sustained by her. Everything is running out. These woods are still a bit lush, because they haven't been ransacked by traveling packs, yet. Eventually, you're going to have to eat human flesh someday, but I want to hold off on it for as long as we can. These woods still have some animal life in them and only a pack or two of wolves. We can settle here for a long time. Longer than ever before, Mercedes. I'm thinking that since we've finally found a cabin and you're so voluptuous, we can lure wolves here and we can eat them, when the animal life dries up, instead of moving along to other woods."  
"Don't hurt the old lady again and we can stay here for however long you like. If something happens to her, I promise, I'll leave and go out on my own in the woods."  
"Oh, Care Bear - you aren't capable of doing that. You would die in an instant."  
"I'll do it if you hurt that woman who was so kind to try to give us shelter!"  
Her mother rolled her eyes and said, "Fine. Go wash up and get prepared I have to test out our new method - see if we're capable of luring wolves."

"You have got to stop doing that," Puck said to Finn, as he looked through their current catch's effects.  
"Why?" Finn wondered.  
"Because, you make yourself miserable, when you do. You do it every time and it rubs off on everyone else, when we should just be glad that we got to eat again. You make conversations with the travel snacks and look at IDs and all that sh*t... it bums me out."  
Finn commented, "I don't ever want to be comfortable with eating other people to survive. I want to remember that its horrible, that our lives are terrible, and I want to remember that even though this... Rachel... is our food today, she used to be someone's baby, someone's daughter, someone's friend, maybe even had a lover. There used to be normal people and normal lives and there still are some out there. And people like us eat them." He shuddered and shut the wallet.  
"Thank you for spoiling my leg of Rachel," Puck said and dropped a chunk of meat onto Finn's lap.  
Finn chuckled and picked it up. "Its barely even cooked, Puck. You're gonna die if you keep doing this. Sickness from food poisoning is a slow, painful death."  
"Naw, Mike'll put an axe to me before it got that far. Anyway, we were low on fire so everyone's meat from last night is a little raw."  
"We're low on fire again?" Finn asked and looked over at Tina.  
She sighed and got up, leaving her chunk of meat with Quinn, "Keep an eye on this, will ya? Gotta talk to Pack Master..."

Mike's arms were folded as he watched the woods from the hillside. "We're getting low on fire," Tina told him. "Puck and Finn are gonna go into the city and try to gather more stuff for it."  
"Tell them to get more gas too," he said. "The jeep's a little low. It won't make another trip if they don't." She nodded and kissed him on the lips before setting off back to their campsite. Mike's eyes quickly alerted to something in the distance. Actually, there were two things... far apart, but the first one caught him particularly off guard, because she looked familiar - a girl, on the porch of a cabin that they had been inside of and through many times before, and left as a means to bait unsuspecting sheep who wandered inside, hoping for shelter - she obviously had not missed many meals, and from the chimney in that place, Mike saw smoke coming out... who would be so stupid, unless it was purposeful to draw someone in?  
The other thing was several miles away. A loner of the sheep class, as far as Mike could tell. He had regular clothing. Nothing torn or custom or even that dirty, from what Mike could see. And one thing that he did that no wolf would ever do, besides traveling alone, was to be so damned conspicuous. He was wearing red and Mike thought that he looked pretty well fed, himself. Mike let out a loud howl and his friends began to gather around him. They all stood there with him, looking down upon young Sam Evans.  
Puck slapped Finn on the back and said, "We might get to keep legless Rachel around for a bit longer."


	2. The Woods

**THE WOODS**

It was about time to get everything put away for the hunt. Mike was posted on the hilltop, observing. Quinn, Azimio and Hank had already gone into the woods to track the boy that Mike was simply going to think of as "Red," while Tina, Santana and Matt strapped legless Rachel and bonehead Brittany to a large stick. Brittany was tied up at the wrists and ankles, around the stick, her mouth was gagged and her eyes blindfolded. Rachel was strapped similarly, but tied at the waist, because both of her legs had already been eaten. The tied up stumps that she had on her body hurt so much that she spent more time unconscious than awake, from pain alone.

Dave and Matt each took one end of the Brittany stick and Tina and Santana each took an end of the Rachel stick. They would hide them away while they hunted. And after Finn and Puck returned from the trip into town, the hunt would begin…

Hank and Azimio lurked in the woods, as Quinn pretty much traveled an open path. No one ever saw her as a threat, so she never worried about trying to sneak through the woods, not much, at least. She was generally the "boy bait." Red seemed like he'd probably fall prey to such bait. She took Brittany's blood-stained clothes and put them on. Wolf clothes might alarm the human boy.

Most wolves wore fur clothing that they sewed together themselves. Living in the woods, it was the easiest resource AND, it kept them warmer on those cold nights. It was going to be a cold night, but she knew that the pack would catch up to them, before long. For the moment, she would track Red and her guys would keep surveillance. Nobody would move until she signaled, unless Mike arrived and overrode the hunt with a signal of his own. Usually, though – he simply watched and only stepped in if one of his wolves couldn't handle things.

Nobody ever would have guessed that Mike Chang would become the man he had become – one that they called a wolf. He used to be the nice guy on the football team. He was the smart guy who also loved to dance. He was going to become a doctor, for his parents, even though it was his passion to dance. He shut his eyes and tried not to think about his parents, but the voices were there, always there. He still saw them. They spoke to him and gave him counsel. Mrs. Chang said, "It will be at least morning before you reach your tracking team. For tonight, you'll have to fast." He nodded once. Tina simply watched him as he watched the trackers.

Sam sighed and stopped walking, looking at his compass and his map. There was no way that he could make it to grandmother's house before nightfall and AFTER nightfall… there would be wolves. He took his dad's old hunting bow and a collection of arrows as protection, but he knew that he would have to set up camp somewhere. Survival in the woods wasn't really something that he had tried ever since the wolves, but he hoped that he could remember how to camp and stuff enough to make it through the night. Really – that was all that he had to do, right?

He saw a cave, but he was pretty sure that it was probably already spoken for. Who would leave a cave unattended, in times like these? He pulled out his bow and arrow and decided to try to check the place out. He didn't want any trouble, just a place to pitch his tent for the evening.

Quinn shook her head.. _Dumb bastard. _She climbed onto a small escarpment near the cave that he was going to enter and jumped off of it with a yelp. Sam jumped at the sound. "Hello?" He called out, neglecting the cave to investigate the noise. "Just to let you know, I'm armed and just because I'm investigating a strange noise, doesn't mean I won't fuck your world up! I was an avid Walking Dead fan and adamant zombie apocalypse survivalist. I know wolves are different than that, but…" He paused, with his arrow pointed at her. "Oh…"

Even covered in dirt and blood, the girl was a vision of beauty… and a girl… and alone? He lowered pointed his arrow towards the escarpment and asked her, "Where did you come from?" She placed a finger over her lip and pointed, apprehensively towards the cave. He nodded and pointed his arrow towards the cave. "Are you hurt?" He asked her, in a whisper.

"Yes," she said. Sam sighed and put his weapon away to help her up. When he did, she told him, "I've been in these woods for a while now. There are still fur creatures, if you can believe it. But… there are wolves. From what I've seen, there's more than one pack here. You can't be too careful around mysterious caves and you really shouldn't investigate strange noises. But, thank you."

"No problem," he said. "I was heading for my grandmother's cabin, but I won't be able to make it there by nightfall. I just wanted to camp out for the evening."

"Camp out? Like in a tent? You're one of the stupidest boys that I've met since being here. With that jacket, I'm surprised you haven't been spotted and eaten. Give it to me," she ordered.

"No. It was my dad's and I haven't seen her in years. I want her to know that I'm really me and not some random blond kid."

"Put it away then. You don't want one pack on your trail, much less three," Quinn told him.

"Funny," he said, as he took off his hoodie to put away in his backpack, "You don't look that incognito with your bright pink hair, either. Why haven't you been caught?"

"You don't know the smells yet, I guess. This blood all over me is days old. I carry carcass parts and wear the scent. If you smell dead already, they leave you alone. Wolves are only human. They can't eat rotten flesh any more than you can and only the scalawag brands will even attempt it in the desperation of starvation. I'll help you find a place to rest, but don't even think about putting that tent up, unless you just want to be eaten," Quinn told him. She began to limp away, "We haven't got long, so try to keep up."

"Yes, Miss…"

"No 'Miss,' I'm just a girl you met in the woods," she said.

"I'm Sa-"

"Sad Boy in a Red Jacket. Sure. How 'bout I just call you Red? It's better not to exchange names in a place where people don't live long," Quinn told him, climbing back up the escarpment, with his help.

"Red, ok. I can live with that. Can I call you Pinky, then? You know, because of the hair?"

"Sure," she said. "I don't know why I keep doing it. I guess some part of me likes to hold on to sixteen. I feel like an old maid, though." She lifted up a branch and nudged her head forward. "There's a shed this way, a bit up the trail. Secret entrance that the wolves haven't found yet," she lied.

"Ok," Sam said and walked beneath the branch. He held it for her to get under it, too and when she did, she nudged her head forward and he began to walk. Quinn looked around her for signs of Hank and Azimio. She should be giving them the signal, now, but what if this kid was playing her and he had a gun or something? She hoped that this was why she was reluctant and not Finn rubbing off on her. "When we get to my grandma's you can wash up and probably throw on some clothes of hers. I know that it can't be easy to scavenge through the woods alone."

"What makes you even think that your grandmother is still alive? I haven't seen any cabins that weren't overtaken by wolves or militant survivalists," Quinn said.

"There you have it. Militant survivalist – that's the best description of my grandmother that I've ever heard. She might be old, but she ain't weak," he said.

"Wolves travel in packs. You don't necessarily have to be weak to get caught… You could just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time," she said and gave the signal. When she did, Sam grabbed her and put her in a choke hold with a hunting knife to her throat. Azimio and Hank both appeared, but paused. Finn's girl was being threatened.

"I might be pretty, but I ain't dumb," Sam told Quinn. "Y'all got weapons to come after me with, or were you gonna just beat me to death?"

Azimio smiled and shook his head, "Lady Lips – you harm her and that'll just be more food for the pack. That, and I don't think that you have it in you to hurt a girl. You probably got a mom, sister, daughter, cousin that looks just like her and when you move in to try to do something, your little blond kin is going to pop into your head." He folded his arms and smiled wider. He could see how true that was for Red. The kid was probably making a list of every female relative that he had, right then…

A loud groan came out of Quinn as she elbowed him and tried to wrestle the knife from him. When Sam noticed Azimio and Hank moving in on him, he punched Quinn in the side and hissed, "Sorry. So sorry," he said, as he ran away.

Azimio checked on Quinn, but she swatted him away, "Go after him, Stupid!" The three of them gave chase. Quinn was holding her side, but running as quickly as Azimio, while Hank was right on Sam's tail. Sam glanced behind him and saw that the strong-jawed wolf was gaining on him. It was now, or never. Sam pulled out one of his arrows, turned and halted. Hank ran right into it and groaned as he fell forward. "Hank!" Azmio yelled, as Sam continued to run.

Quinn and Azimio reached Hank and he was holding himself. "We have to see to this before it gets dark. We'll track Red in the morning. By that time, Mike will be around." She pulled the arrow out of her friend and Azimio applied pressure to the blood. "We need to get to safety. I think we've gotten into another pack's territory. We can't fight them without ours." She looked in the direction that Red had run into. "Hopefully, they don't get him before we do. This just became personal." Quinn reached into her blouse and pulled out Sam's map and compass. "But, my hands are as swift as they were in high school. The kid has no idea where he's going. We'll find him."

Hank groaned as they helped him up. "I almost had him. I _almost _had him!"

"That's okay, Hank. You're an amazing hunter, and you'll have your chance again, soon," Quinn said as she led the way to one of their safety areas.

Sam knew to be suspicious of the girl. "Be suspicious of everybody," the media would say, before programs stopped airing. He would never forget that. She was in the woods, alone – couldn't be more than a buck, soaking wet and wearing dumbbells. There was no way that she had survived alone ad there was no way that she was starving, not with her controlled state of mind. Everyone thought that woods people had it bad – and they honestly did… but the highest rates of starvation were outside of the woods. In the cities and the towns where people were too afraid to go into the woods and hunt. THAT was where starvation was. That was what frightened people enough to flee for the woods. There were wolves in the city, too… but they generally were what Sam called sleeper cell wolves. They didn't just go around eating people all of the time, but when they began to starve too much – they would snap and eat a family member or friend… Then, they would become the village witch. They would become the hunted and the "normal people" would eat them.

Wolves were everywhere, and unfortunately, they weren't like the movies. They didn't transform, they didn't grow fangs or fur or wait on the full moon to stir up their monster. The monster had always been a part of them and the dire situation of society had stirred it. Pinky was right. Wolves were only human. Everyone knew that, but nobody ever said it out loud. Nobody… but a wolf.

He continued to run. Wolf sympathizers were hunted, as well. The "normal people" had to have some way of eating when things got bad in the city and they were still not quite brave enough to face the wild.

Sam had been running for a while when he felt himself falling and he let out a loud cry! He had just fallen into a hole… with a net! He was trapped!


	3. Underground Shelter

UNDERGROUND SHELTER

"Damn it!" Sam said, then reached into his bag for his flashlight.

When the light came on, it quickly went out. Someone had hit him over the head and knocked him unconscious. That same someone reached for his flashlight and shined it upon him. She used it to get a better look at him, then hoisted him onto her shoulder. "You don't look like a wolf," she said as she moved him out of the way of the net so that she could pull it tight, to catch the next prey. When the trap was set again, she set something under Sam's head and began to drag him by his feet, into her den. "Kurt," she called out, "I found something in one of the traps." She dropped Sam's feet and Kurt came to hover above him.

"It's… it's a boy," Kurt said.

Marley nodded her head, "Yeah. I think that he was being chased by wolves."

"Which faction?" Kurt wondered.

"The trap that I got him out of – I'll presume that it's the one that Beth's mother is in," she told him.

"Oh, dear. Then… he can't stay here!" Kurt said. We can't have THAT pack tracking a hunt to us. We have too much at stake."

"We can release him in the morning. We can't just leave him out there, tonight. He's an innocent boy," Isabelle told Kurt, then she told Marley, "Give him a pallet in the cells." When Marley dragged him out, Kurt gave Isabelle a disapproving look. "I have already spoken," she told him.

"Yes, I heard you, loud and clear. We've made a lot of sacrifices. We can't risk things by leading Beth's mom here. She'll take Beth back and they'll kill all of us, including the innocents that we've been caring for these past few years. Beth is going to be your successor. That is the main reason that we took her from her pack."

"They won't find us. They never find us," Isabelle said. "Tomorrow, you should visit the old lady. Bring her some produce and see how she's faring, and Kurt… stop worrying. They'll be fine. Everyone will be fine." She began to dig through Sam's bag as Kurt headed out of her area. He walked through this cellar into the cells and saw Marley lock the boy in.

"Check on the children and leave me here to watch him," Kurt told her. She nodded once and followed his order. Kurt looked at the blond. God, he was cute… it had been a long time since Kurt saw a cute boy who wasn't a wolf. This guy couldn't have been out in the woods for more than a day or two. What the hell was he thinking by coming here?" Kurt heard shuffling and he reached for his spray and lighter, but it was Isabelle.

"This boy… he knows the old lady," she said and showed Kurt a photo of him and the woman.

"She said that she had children and grandchildren, before. Maybe he's one of them," Kurt said.

"If that's the case, releasing him to fend for himself would be a great dishonor to her," Isabelle said.

"But… Beth…"

"You know how wolves are about their families!" Isabelle snapped. She handed Kurt the photo and the backpack and the bow and arrows, "Tomorrow, you take him with you, to visit her. We don't know how much she would want him to know, so take the woods, instead of the underground."

"Are you kidding?" He asked.

"Marley takes to the woods all of the time!" She said.

"Marley is psychotic. That's why we keep her!" He snapped back.

"IF you release him into the wild alone, you are cut off from us. We'll tell the old lady you acted alone and then you'll have HER to deal with," Isabelle warned. "I don't have to tell you how bad it is to have a wolf wolf-hunter on your bad side, do I?" She looked at him and nodded, then left. Kurt threw Sam's things on the ground and stormed out. He bumped into Marley as she was coming from the camp area.

"Everyone's fine," she said.

"Thank you, Marley," he told her. She nodded and went to watch over the boy, again. Kurt came into the quarters and checked for himself. Marley was useful for a lot, but she was also a young lady who suffered from a mental break when her mother was taken by wolves. She hated wolves. She liked to harm them, to torture them, to make them hate their life before they died. She was the only one with the stomach enough to prepare them for food.

Artie was helping Betty to settle on her mat when Kurt came in and helped. "Why didn't you call out?"

"The way that Marley was looking, it seemed like something was going on," Artie said. "I'm not as bad off as Betty and Sean. I CAN help, Kurt."

"It's not an issue of what you can do, Artie. It's just… Isabelle and I go through a lot to keep you all safe. It's second nature for me to worry, alright?"

"Alright," Artie said and nodded.

"I'm going to see the old lady tomorrow, so if there's any medicine or anything you all need…"

"Just Sean. He's not going to make it much longer, Kurt," Betty said. "I don't know why all of you didn't just let us die. Living like this isn't any kind of life."

Kurt sighed and sat on the edge of her cot, "When the wolves began to attack, one of the first places they went were homes – nursing homes and assisted living facilities. Isabelle worked at a home. Most of the staff had run out on her and a lot of those people's families didn't come for them. She saw a lot of helpless people die. She can't stand the thought of it happening to you all. It sucks that you were at camp when the wolf riots began, but the fact that Isabelle found you and tried to make sure that you were kept safe…"

"I watched them take my Aunt Emma away and tie her to a stick. I knew that they would kill her, and I couldn't do anything to help her. I couldn't do anything to stop them. I kept wondering… why didn't they take me? I'm useless. Why did they take her?" Betty asked, with tears in her eyes.

"They took her because she was trying to protect all of the others. If she hadn't sacrificed herself, Isabelle and I never would have been able to get all of you out of the campsite. I hate what happened to Emma, we all do. She was a good woman." He cupped her face and kissed her forehead.

"I should've rolled my chair into their knees. Something…" Betty punished herself. "Artie tried to fight back. He hit that one wolf in the shins and hit him over the head when he toppled over…"

"It happened quickly. There was a lot going on," Kurt said. "You should get some sleep."

_ Kurt thought about the campsite. He and his boyfriend, Blaine had volunteered at the place and gone, EVEN THOUGH they had been warned that the woods were becoming more dangerous. The wolves were simply rumored about at that time and made to sound so mythical that they couldn't take the premonitions seriously. Besides, if the woods were MORE dangerous, that meant that the camp for the handi-capable kids would need more help._

_ Blaine was there as a part of a mission effort. He sponsored gay kids, worked on environment efforts, fed the needy and tended to the sick. It was lovely, but sometimes, Kurt had grown to resent all of these causes. They had been receiving calls from a woman named Isabelle Wright. She was a doctor at a recently shut down camp and she was insisting that the kids would not be safe out there. "I have our bus and supplies, but I'll have to make several trips to get them all!" She frantically told Kurt over the phone, when he talked to her._

"_Doctor Wright, do not come to this facility. I have been told that you'll be arrested. I am so sorry that the assisted living home center that you worked at was attacked by looters…"_

"_They weren't looters. They were predators. They took disabled people. They took the elderly. They knocked them out. They dragged them out. They spoke of eating them. Other places have been hit. The media is calling them 'wolves.' All of your campers are in danger and I'm on my way…"_

"_And where will you take them?" Kurt mused._

"_Um… I have no idea. Maybe the hospital. We can lock off their area and keep wolves out," she said frantically._

_Emma grabbed the phone from Kurt and said, "Ms. Wright, you're welcome to stay with us for a little bit. I know that its hard to deal with what happened to you..."_

"_I'm on my way," she said and hung up._

_Emma looked at Kurt and said, "She may be suffering from PTSD. Dad will give her something to calm her down when we get here and the nurses can keep an eye on her._

"_She sounded so serious," Kurt said. "She really believes that the campsite will be attacked. We're in the middle of nowhere. We're safer than any of the people out in society," he commented. How wrong they had been._

_ When the campsite was attacked, Emma and Isabelle started trying to salvage the campers. Dr. Pillsbury was knocked unconscious and taken. "Don't kill the doctor. We might need him to help keep food alive long enough for us to eat it," the pretty young male wolf told his pack. _

_Kurt was crying as he followed Blaine into one of the cabins. "They're going to eat them, Blaine. We have to get them into the bus."_

"_They'll never all fit," Blaine said, pulling out his hunting knife._

"_What… what are you doing?" Kurt wondered._

"_They'll slow everyone else down and all of us will get caught. This is much quicker than what those wolves will do to them." He started for one of the children._

"_Blaine, don't!" Kurt cried out as his partner went towards the frightened children._

"_Everyone just close your eyes, okay? Counselor Blaine is going to sing you all a goodbye song…" _

_Kurt ran out of the cabin, unable to shake the noise of the children screaming, crying, begging… Isabelle grabbed him by the wrist and began to shove him onto the bus. "The bus is full. I can't take anyone else on this trip. I'm going to try to barricade the kids in the other cabin until you can empty this one safely somewhere and come back…"_

"_The… kids in the other cabin have already been hit… They're dead," Kurt said. _

_Isabelle cried as she got onto the bus, too and into the driver's seat. "Well, get on damage control, then. The ones that are on the bus are the only survivors. Help to ease their minds. We gotta get them somewhere safe." Kurt looked out of the back window at Blaine, emerging from the tent with dead bodies tied together. He was dragging them towards the wolves. The pretty boy wolf waved over a few of the others, then patted Blaine on the shoulder. Patted him on the shoulder… Had he known them? Had he set them up? Kurt sniffled and shook his head. "Ok, ok. You can't console the others. I understand. At least have a seat and try to pull yourself together. I'll need you, Kid," Isabelle told him as she drove._

They found the old lady's cabin. She helped them inside, hid them in her basement and let them into a tunnel that she didn't know that she even had before all of the incidents occurred. She'd wished that she had discovered it before her family left her, but at least, if push came to shove, she had an underground cave to find refuge in. She let them settle in, instead and they utilized it, digging to make the lair bigger and to create alternate but hidden routes home.

The old lady let them store things in her place, so they wouldn't have to travel so much. Whenever wolves came calling for her, she locked herself in the basement and didn't go into the cave unless they seemed to find her basement door. It was locked from the inside, but even wolves carried weapons. Nobody had found the hidden basement door yet.

Marley came into the quarters and said, "That boy is awake. He's trying to figure out where he is and stuff."

"I'll go see about him. You go to bed," Kurt instructed. He found Sam, pacing in the cell and said, "Hello." Sam quickly turned and faced him. "I'm Kurt, your host."

"You are the fanciest wolf that I've seen, yet," Sam told him.

"I'm not a wolf," Kurt said. "You should get some rest. We'll let you go in the morning."

"Can I get my stuff?" Sam wondered, pointing at his bag.

"First, let me warn you that I'm stronger than I look and you'll have no idea where you're going if you try to attack me and leave. You wait until tomorrow and you'll have a full escort to your grandmother's house," Kurt said.

"How do you know about my grandmother?" Sam asked.

"She's an ally," Kurt said and opened the cell to kick Sam's things inside. "Get some rest." Sam reached for his bag and checked to see if everything was there. His map and his compass were missing, but everything else was there. He looked at the photo of his family and grandmother. _She's an ally. _If this guy was being honest, that meant that his grandma was still alive.

"Alright. I guess I'll try to get some rest and see you in the morning," Sam said.

"That's the plan," Kurt told him and set himself on the ground, outside of the cell. He would stay there, just in case the boy tried to run away and got himself lost or hurt in the woods. Sam pulled out his hoodie and draped it around himself. Kurt leaned against the wall and the two of them stared at each other, neither wanting to fall to sleep first. Sam lost, but Kurt soon followed him to sleep.


	4. Journies

JOURNIES

Sam startled when he saw Marley in her fur outfit. She reminded him of someone from a savage land comic, but as cool as that thought was, he was reminded of who generally wore fur to keep warm while scavenging through the woods… wolves. "Relax. She isn't a wolf," Kurt told him.

"I AM a wolf. I'm sure that at this point, every living person has to be… but I'm a wolf who hunts wolves. You know how that is," she told Sam. He simply nodded, with a confused face. No, he didn't, but… something was off about her and he didn't want to argue. He just wanted to keep an eye on her.

"Marley, enough talk," Kurt said and took the items that she brought into the dungeon with her off of her hands.

"You'll survive better with me there," she told Kurt.

"Isabelle wants you here," he told her.

"She risks too much sending you with such precious cargo, alone," Marley said, softly. Sam tilted his head. _Precious cargo? _She gave Sam a look and he bashfully turned away from her weird stare.

"Well, she's in charge, here," Kurt said.

"We aren't a pack. There's no master. She can't tell me that I can't go and keep him and you safe," Marley said. "With that being said, this way," she said, leading them out of the caves.

"She's your um…?"

"She's a hunter. She sort of knows these woods probably better than any of the wolves. She made the trap that you fell into. She has them all over the place."

"She seems odd," Sam said.

"Well, she's been through a lot. We all have."

"My mother was ripped to pieces by wolves. She was virtually shreds by the time I tracked her down… but a few wolves died in the process and my new family was able to eat," she said. "And I reclaimed her necklace." She fiddled with the small article of jewelry on her neck. "That's that woods life. Your granny knows."

"How about we just not discuss that, Marley?" Kurt said, knowing exactly why Isabelle didn't want Marley with them. She talked too much. Her filter sometimes just didn't work and she didn't know what not to say, which with Red, they needed to say as little as possible.

"It's cool. I haven't seen my meemaw in years. I want to know what she's like, now," he said.

"No. It's not our place to have some kind of heart to heart with you about the woman you knew and the woman we know, now. Marley – not another word," Kurt warned.

"You ain't her packmaster," Sam said.

"That is true," Marley said. "But, I like Kurt. I choose to listen to him, even if he says it bossy like. I'll let that slide today, Kurt." She grabbed a torch and a bow and arrow on her way and kept going…

Sam followed the two unlikely folks and watched as Marley seemed to keep hearing things that nobody else seemed to. At least _he _didn't hear anything and if Kurt did, he wasn't reacting to anything. He was probably used to the woman. Sam cleared his throat and asked, "So, um…" But Marley put up a quick finger at him and held her hand there, to keep him silent as she pointed to her two eyes, then forward, creeping to some bushes to reveal something to them. Kurt peeked and tensed up.

"Intruding," Marley whispered, barely audible. "Execute?"

"Too many of them," Kurt told her, backing away. Sam looked at the wolves that they were watching and was confused. _Intruding? They had territories, or something? _There were only four that he could see, but maybe they had others with them and these two knew it. Marley pointed out a route and waved them along, Kurt moved first, then Sam followed and she closed up the rear, readying her weapon, just in case.

When they were clear, Marley nonchalantly asked, "What were you going to say?"

"No longer important… Look… how many packs are there around these parts?" He wondered, suddenly fearful for his grandmother. What if she _wasn't _okay? Hell, for all he knew, he was being led to his death and his meemaw had been long since dead. They seemed honest, but who was actually really honest?

"There are three worth speaking of. The one that you were running from, the one that we just saw, back there, and the one that ran us into hiding," Marley answered, with this distant look in her eyes… "Then, there's us. They know that we exist, but they don't know how to find us."

"So, you all really _are _a pack," Sam observed, suspiciously.

Kurt commented, "We are people trying to survive with what we have. All of these trees and plants here… none of them are edible. The few animals that are left die of starvation, themselves, frequently – because humans are eating what they used to be able to eat. Eating decayed flesh will kill you. Might as well not eat. The simplest thing to do is…" He couldn't finish the statement, "Maybe wherever you came from there were more options."

"Yeah, well, no. People have tried to make communities to grow plants and stuff. It's like a danger zone. You could literally die guarding these places," Sam said.

"You could literally die anywhere, at any time," Marley said with a confused grimace.

"Yeah…" Sam said, looking back at her with the same expression. "Um… the pack that I was running from – do you think that they're following us?"

"They aren't. They will have returned to their pack with their wounded and they'll hunt you today, as a pack." Marley seemed completely fine with that.

"There' s three of us…" Sam noted.

"They'll lunge if they catch us with us," she said, happily. "When a member is wounded, that takes down a hunter and possibly puts them in the position to have to eat them, if they can't get better. That's something that most pack masters frown upon."

"Jesse wouldn't care. More meat for him," Kurt said, bitterly.

"That's the one that sent us into hiding. Kurt's boyfriend bartered his way into the pack by killing kids that we knew…" Marley blurted. Sam's eyes widened.

"Marley." The tone that Kurt used actually silenced her. "Painful memories, okay?" He said, more calmly, and Sam saw that tears were trying to come into the young man's eyes.

"Sorry. I'm just trying to know what I've gotten myself into with coming here," Sam said.

"Deep shit," Kurt summed up the answer and Marley and he finally agreed on something as she nodded her head to cosign.

Quinn tied the straps of her fur sleeves on at her shoulders, frustrated as she looked at Tina and Santana trying to tend to Hank. He was not going to make it. They all knew it, even though nobody said it and it was her fault, even though nobody pointed it out. Finn came to check on her and wrapped his arms around her. "It wasn't your fault," he said.

She just threw him a look and said, "Nobody said that it was."

"Yeah, but I think I know my little Quinn." He kissed the side of her face and said, "We're gonna get that Red kid and he's gonna die slow and painfully."

Quinn bit her lip and rolled her eyes. "Hey called me Pinky… like we're friends, ro something. Stupid little fucker. He said something about going to his grandmother's.. does he think this is a fairy tale? That our life here is some majestic fantasy to try to fulfill?" Her eyes were damp and she grabbed her harness of knives. "I'm going to stab him in his ass!" She wiped a tear and stormed off. Finn sighed and chuckled. _Poor Red._

Mercedes kept a watch on the old woman. She wasn't supposed to do so, but she allowed her to carve herself a makeshift leg. The woman worked on this most of her time, while trying to heal. If her mama knew that she had allowed the woman to have a knife, she would flip out and probably kill the lady. She gave it to Mercedes every night and Mercedes returned it to her in the mornings. She just wanted the woman to get back on her feet and for her and her mother to get out of there and find another place to rest.

She went into the basement to see her mother knocking on different areas. "What are you doing?" She asked, more annoyed than ever before with her mother.

"Trying to figure out her secret. There is no reason that a woman that I got the drop on so easily should have survived through this. She either has companions, who will eventually show up, or she has good weapons. Weapons, we can use. Companions? We'll need weapons to deal with."

"We'll need weapons, anyway. I thought that you were going to go to get the stuff that we stashed. You still haven't, yet. We need that stuff, Mama. This woman isn't going to help us after you lacked her leg off, for breakfast," Mercedes said. "I could go, if you want?"

"You wouldn't survive a damn day out there alone. I'll have to get it. But, if anyone comes calling before I get back, don't open the door. EVERYONE is lying to you. And if they manage to get inside," she tossed Mercedes the ax, which she caught. "You know how to swing. Pretend that they're wood to keep us warm in the forest." Her mother grabbed an ax of her own and a few other things that she had stolen from the granny before leaving. "Lock up behind me," she told her. Mercedes did so, a little bit frightened about her mom being alone, with wolves out there… but she had proven time and time again that she could make it. Now, the old woman, Mercedes hadn't thought about…

How _did _she make it without help? Mercedes went into the room and smiled softly when she saw the woman, carving vigorously, as always. "Hey, Gran," Mercedes said and asked, "You need anything?"

"A new leg," Granny commented. "I haven't been able to carve too well because the pain sends shocks through my body." She frowned, but didn't abort her mission.

Mercedes sighed and said, "Well, I don't have any new legs, but I do have tea, if you want some?"

"Where is your mother?" Granny asked, still carving.

"She's made a quick run," Mercedes said.

Finally, Granny stopped and looked up, "I'd actually love some tea," she said. "And, while I can, if I can simply have some fried green tomatoes…"

"I don't know how to make that," Mercedes said with a frown.

"The kitchen is full of recipes, dear. It'll be there, if it's not too much trouble. I _would _get up and fix it, myself, but…"

Mercedes waved a hand and nodded, "Of course. I'll find the recipe and make you some." As soon as she left the room, the old woman glanced around for something to use as a cane and she struggled to try to navigate. If she could make it into the basement, that was all that she needed. She grabbed the knife. The girl seemed innocent enough, but if she tried something, Granny would simply have to let her have it.

Mercedes had finally found the recipe and everything that she needed to make this stuff and the recipe, to her, seemed difficult. She hoped that Gran would like it... She hoped that she wouldn't burn down the damn cabin. She was about to start trying to make it when she heard a huge crash underfoot. "Shit!" She hissed and went rushing, first to Granny's room – where she no longer was and several items were knocked about, then she rushed to the basement and tried to open it. "It locks from this side, Cub," Granny said, hoarsely. The woman had fallen and honestly felt like she might die, but she was straining to crawl across the floor into the escape channel.

"Gran, are you hurt? Let me try to help you!" Mercedes urged.

"Help yourself. It's what everyone else in the world is going to do when you meet them. It's what I should have done when y'all came-a-knockin'. Now, we both know that under no circumstances should anybody try to help anybody, unless it helps themselves." Granny leaned against the wall as she struggled with opening the pathway. She would perish in the tunnels, but she wasn't going to wait around to be killed by that crazy wolf bitch, in her own home.

"Gran…"

"Hey, Cub… there's a photo on the mantle of my family. I won't ever see any of them again, but I want you to take a look at it. It'll show you what family's actually supposed to look like. Good luck with… her. Good luck, in general. You seem like a nice girl." Granny made it into the tunnel and fought to lock it up behind her. Mercedes called out to her, but she never replied as she began to try to struggle towards the underground, to her allies.


End file.
